The Denu Circuit Court has sentenced a 32-year-old Nigerien tricycle rider, Mustapha Usman, to seven months in prison for facilitating the unlawful entry of four Nigeriens into Ghana.
Usman was handed three months for migrant smuggling and four months for causing a false representation to be made. The sentences will run concurrently.
He pleaded guilty to both charges after they were interpreted into Hausa with the assistance of the Ghana Police Service, Ketu Division. He appeared before the court without a lawyer.
The court subsequently convicted him and ordered that he be held at the Aflao Police Station before being transferred to the Ho Central Prison. The four migrants have since been repatriated.
According to the prosecution, Usman, who resides in Togo, agreed to transport the four migrants from the Lagos Lorry Park in Lomé to Kojoviakope near the Aflao border for GH¢200 each.
At Kojoviakope, he allegedly contacted an accomplice known as Remy, who is still at large, to help move the migrants into Ghana.
The four were reportedly concealed in the bucket of Usman’s tricycle and covered to make it appear empty and avoid immigration checks.
The tricycle was intercepted by Ghana Immigration Service officers around Beat Seven after crossing into Ghana. The rider transporting it fled, while Usman later arrived at the scene and identified himself as the owner.
The migrants told investigators that they had each contributed towards the GH¢200 payment made to Usman.
Usman was charged under Ghana’s Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573), as amended, for migrant smuggling and causing a false representation to be made.
